A harvester is an agricultural machine that is used to harvest and process crops. For instance, a forage harvester may be used to cut and comminute silage crops, such as grass and corn. Similarly, a combine harvester may be used to harvest grain crops, such as wheat, oats, rye, barely, corn, soybeans, and flax or linseed. In general, the objective is to complete several processes, which traditionally were distinct, in one pass of the machine over a particular part of the field. In this regard, most harvesters are equipped with a detachable harvesting implement, such as a header, which cuts and collects the crop from the field and feeds it to the base harvester for further processing. After processing, the harvested crop may be delivered to a crop tank of the harvester for storage.
Many harvesters include a sensor configured to sense harvested crops levels within the crop tank. For example, the sensor may be configured to emit a sensor beam, such as an ultrasonic beam, into the crop tank for reflection off of a top surface of the harvested crop stored within the crop tank. The sensor may also be configured to receive the sensor beam after reflection off of the harvested crop. In this regard, a time period between when the sensor beam is emitted by the sensor and when the reflected sensor beam is received by the sensor may be indicative of the harvested crop level within the crop tank.
In certain instances, when the current crop level within the crop tank is below a certain vertical position (e.g., the crop tank is mostly empty), the geometry of the crop tank may prevent the sensor beam from contacting the top surface of the harvested crop. In such instances, a reflection panel may be positioned within the crop tank so as to reflect the sensor beam when the harvested crop is unable to do so. However, conventional reflection panels must be mounted within the crop tank at a precise orientation to reflect the sensor beam in a direction that the sensor is able to receive. Such a precise mounting orientation requires the use of time-consuming alignment and adjustment procedures during installation of the reflection panel. When the reflection panel is not mounted in such a precise orientation, the sensor beam is reflected in such a manner that the sensor is unable to receive the reflected sensor beam,
Accordingly, an improved system and method for sensing harvested crop levels within an agricultural harvester would be welcomed in the technology.